What Sparked Mikal Bridges' Career Night with Nets

It was well before Mikal Bridges' career-high performance that the Nets knew he was going to be in for a big night and not leave without a win.

Mikal Bridges has quickly become a fan favorite in the matter of a week in Brooklyn but on Thursday night, he made sure to have a career night in his new home. 

The defensive-minded wing exploded for a career-high 45 points on 17-of-24 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point territory. He added eight rebounds, five assists, two steals, and two blocks to his career night. 

It was apparent within the team that he was going to have a big night one way or the other. When the Nets were going through their walkthrough earlier in the day, his energy and juice were beaming. He also made it clear that he wanted to hit the All-Star break with a win. That was his main goal. 

"Overall, it's his spirit, energy, and juice even at the walkthrough today. He had the mindset of like he wasn't going to let us lose," head coach Jacque Vaughn said postgame. "He had it going early and really just had some good looks to go down. The threes were able to go down for him. But overall, it was his attitude and mindset of not letting us not go away with a win tonight."

Brooklyn trailed Miami heading into halftime and was in need of finding an offensive rhythm in order to claw out a home win. Bridges, who compiled a team-high 17 points at the break, flipped the offensive switch to lead his new team to a huge win. 

"That was crazy. He was in the zone," Cam Johnson said. "You know, making plays and buckets on top in all different ways. 

It was quickly visible that Bridges was locked in to put the ball in the basket in the opening minutes of the third. Once Vaughn saw his newest wing had it going, he kept running the offense through him for the remaining two quarters of play. He lit up the 3-point arc and made a series of mid-range jumpers, extinguishing the Heat down the stretch. 

"My teammates kept finding me. I felt that I had it going and they just kept giving me the ball. They kept setting screens and letting me just operate," Bridges said postgame. "Coach just drawing up stuff too. He gave me the confidence to go out there and just be aggressive." 

Like Vaughn mentioned postgame about Bridge's mentality during Wednesday's walkthrough hours before the contest, the most important thing was exiting Barclays Center with a victory and momentum. A career-high night for "Brooklyn Bridges" wouldn't mean much if the box score didn't include a win. 

"I wanted to do all that and win too. I feel like you do all that and lose, it's kind of like an empty stat to me. That's how I go," Bridges said. "I'm just happy we got the dub and everyone was playing well."

His career-high eruption marked the first 40+ game of his career. In fact, he became the first Net to break the 40-point mark in a contest this season since the future Hall of Famer he got traded for; Kevin Durant. 

"Yeah, I mean, never scored 40 in my life, so it's a first," said Bridges with a smile. "But like I said, just being aggressive. Just doing whatever it takes to win. That’s really what it comes down to, like I said, just winning the game. Even if I score 40 or I score five. If I was to score five and I was aggressive and we won, I would feel good anyway. So just trying to win man, just doing whatever it takes honestly.”